Gustav Mahler was far more than a composer, his music more than the art of arranging sound. Far more than that, his works constitute an engagement with the human condition. His masterpieces reveal a human being grappling with life’s key questions: What is the meaning of life? How can we comprehend death? Who are we? How can we deal with identity and the need to belong? How can we be in harmony with the environment and our planet? What can music, art, and culture accomplish?
This is the inspiration for the Mahler Forum for Music and Society, a locally based and globally connected cultural platform. In collaboration with the Mahler Foundation, as well as international and national musicians, artists, scientists, and authors, the Mahler Forum provides an open, interdisciplinary space of thought to examine the central issues of our time from the perspectives of music, art, and science.
If the first Mahler Forum, entitled — I, Nature, dealt with the frequently contradictory relationship between culture and nature, between humans and the environment, the second Forum, called A Room of One’s Own, focused on the artist’s retreat as a cultural technique several thousands of years old.
At the third Mahler Forum, we sought to generate a democratic space of thought under the title of The Power of Wonder—Astonishment as a Driving Force for Community Building. All participants were invited to jointly try out, discuss, and make visible tools of wonder for contemporary and future concepts of society from the perspectives of music, the visual arts, literature, the humanities, and the natural sciences.
This year our fourth forum opens up at the intersection of quantum physical phenomena, relevant philosophical discourse, and creativity to talk about how living beings and habitats are interconnected, either visibly or in the shadows.
The key components of Voices of Entanglement are the artistic practices and cross-generational intertwinements of the women in Gustav Mahler’s family constellation. In addition to Alma Mahler’s compositions, we will present Anna Mahler’s sculptural oeuvre on the occasion of her 120th birthday and welcome the writer Marina Mahler as our guest of honor.
President: Felizitas Thun-Hohenstein
Vice-President: Morten Solvik
Secretary: Trixi Thunn-Hohenstein
Deputy Secretary: Elisabeth von Samsonow
Cashier: Michael Koschier
Cashier Deputy: Celestine Kubelka
Auditor: Christa Anderluh
Auditor: Benedikt Klocker
Thomas Hampson, Ulrike Sych